An encouragement to the love and trust of Jesus.
The Eighty-fifth Letter.
An encouragement to the love and trust of Jesus.
Dear sister!
Just now I hear that Brother N. is writing to your husband, wherefore I found myself urged, with a weak pen, to greet you heartily. May the Jesus, whom wind and sea must obey, speak peace into your heart, and make your mind cheerful, that you may trust Him and love Him without measure — yea, Amen!
Your last little letter I have often answered in spirit, though outwardly it could not be done; I do not forget you, and Jesus far less; be assured of this in His name. Your state is still somewhat wavering, or changeable; now and then you come onto a straight track — namely, when in simplicity you believe the Savior so near, and seek to keep company with Him, even without knowing Him clearly, and so on: then you are on the right track. Another time you leave this track again, and think: that were no exercise for you; you were, and would remain, a wretched, corrupt creature; the Savior would have nothing to do with you, you only imagined such a thing. And behold, then you sink again into the gloomy anxiety-being of your nature, where the Tempter makes you believe all sorts of things, in order to rob you of the love and the trust in Jesus — and, I had almost said, in His children too. Do you look unto Jesus, then it goes well; do you look unto yourself, then you sink.
Now, dear child, do not plague yourself so vainly with yourself; do not waste your time hanging after doubting thoughts; forget your misery, and lay it, as it were in a little bundle, before Jesus, without opening the little bundle. Give yourself wholly to Jesus; He has taken it upon Himself to save you from all your sins; He will know well how to carry it out — over that you need not break your head. To trust Jesus, to love Jesus, that is your duty; for which He Himself will give grace, to exercise you in it simply.
Dispute not with the Tempter when he wants to bring you mistrust and doubt; let him go to Golgotha, if he wants anything. Think you: I am a simple woman, I cannot dispute, I have only to do with Jesus. I know well, the enemy will whisper to you that I have such good thoughts of you only because I do not sufficiently know your wretched state: No, dear child! I have no good thoughts of you; I know your miseries perhaps better than you think; but I have such good thoughts of Jesus, who receiveth sinners, and eateth with them, Luke 15. Who also loves your soul — not because you are pious, but that He may make you pious. See, this exercise of love you must begin in such an order, too: not first to want to be holy and pure, and then to love Jesus and trust Him — that would take far too long — but, because Jesus first loved you, though He knows your whole misery to the very bottom, that you, for that very reason, straightway begin to take a good heart toward Jesus, to love Him heartily, and seek to walk with Him as with your dearest heart-friend, according to the friendship-rules which I have set forth in the Little Flower-Garden, p. 342; so you will gradually be delivered from all darknesses and miseries, and become a dear child of God — even as the Lord has called you thereto with pure love, and this very moment invites you. May He bless you eternally! In Him remain,
Your
Mülheim, 9 November 1735. — weak brother and intercessor.
German
Der 85te Brief.
Ermunterung zur Liebe und Vertrauen zu JEsu.
Liebe Schwester!
So eben höre ich, daß Bruder N. an deinen Mann schreibet, weswegen mich gedrungen funde, mit matter Feder dich herzlich zu begrüßen.
— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.
German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. A letter of comfort to a scrupulous, anxious soul — Anna Margaretha Schmitz, wife of Tersteegen's own publisher — who tormented herself with her unworthiness. Everything in it turns on one axis: the direction of the soul's gaze. Her problem is not that she is worse than she thinks but that she keeps looking at herself. Sometimes, Tersteegen says, she "believes the Savior so near" and walks with Him, and all is well; then she turns back to her own wretchedness, decides Christ can have nothing to do with her, and "sinks again into the gloomy anxiety-being of her nature." His whole cure is Peter's on the water: "Do you look unto Jesus, then it goes well; do you look unto yourself, then you sink." From that flow the letter's gentle, practical counsels — stop arguing with the doubting thoughts; "forget your misery, and lay it, as it were in a little bundle, before Jesus, without opening the little bundle"; refuse to debate the Tempter ("I am a simple woman, I cannot dispute, I have only to do with Jesus"). And its theological heart is a reversal of the usual anxious order of piety: not "first become holy, then dare to love Christ," but the gospel's own sequence — "because Jesus first loved you," love Him now, misery and all, "as with your dearest heart-friend." Tersteegen refuses to flatter her ("I have no good thoughts of you") precisely so he can point past her entirely: "but I have such good thoughts of Jesus, who receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." He even sends her to the practical "friendship-rules" in his own beloved Geistliches Blumengärtlein — and signs himself not just her brother but her intercessor.
A few words and echoes.
- "The Jesus, whom wind and sea must obey." Matthew 8:26–27 (Mark 4:41), the stilling of the storm — "what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!" The same Lord can speak peace into the storm of an anxious heart.
- "Do you look unto Jesus, then it goes well; do you look unto yourself, then you sink." Matthew 14:29–31 — Peter walked on the water while his eyes were on Christ, and "when he saw the wind boisterous," began to sink; joined to Hebrews 12:2, "looking unto Jesus." The letter's governing image.
- "Lay your misery in a little bundle before Jesus, without opening it." A homely picture of casting care — 1 Peter 5:7, "casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you"; the point is not to keep untying and inspecting the bundle of one's faults.
- "He has taken it upon Himself to save you from all your sins." Matthew 1:21, "he shall save his people from their sins" — the work is His, not the anxious soul's.
- "Who receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Luke 15." Luke 15:2 — the Pharisees' complaint turned into gospel; Tersteegen's warrant for having "good thoughts of Jesus" toward the very worst.
- "Because Jesus first loved you." 1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us" — the order of grace: love is response, not precondition; Christ loves in order "to make you pious," not because you already are.
- "The friendship-rules… in the Little Flower-Garden." Tersteegen's own Geistliches Blumengärtlein inniger Seelen (1729), his immensely popular manual of devotion; he points the sister to its rules for walking with Jesus as one's nearest friend. (The 1773 print cites "p. 342," with a note that this is the pagination of the newest, 1769, edition.)
- "Weak brother and intercessor." He signs not only as her fellow-Christian but as one who prays for her — the letter is itself a piece of that intercession.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-085 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.